222 Philosophy of Education

mation. What is known, in a given case, is what is sure, cer-
tain, settled, disposed of; that which we think with rather
than that which we think about. In its honorable sense,
knowledge is distinguished from opinion, guesswork, specula-
tion, and mere tradition. In knowledge, things are ascertained;
they are so and not dubiously otherwise. But experience
makes us aware that there is difference between intellectual
certainty of subject matter and our certainty. We are made, so
to speak, for belief; credulity is natural. The undisciplined
mind is averse to suspense and intellectual hesitation; it is
prone to assertion. It likes things undisturbed, settled, and
treats them as such without due warrant. Familiarity, com-
mon repute, and congeniality to desire are readily made meas-
uring rods of truth. Ignorance gives way to opinionated and
current error, — a greater foe to learning than ignorance itself.
A Socrates is thus led to declare that consciousness of igno-
rance is the beginning of effective love of wisdom, and a Des-
cartes to say that science is born of doubting.

We have already dwelt upon the fact that subject matter,
or data, and ideas have to have their worth tested experi-
mentally: that in themselves they are tentative and provi-
sional. Our predilection for premature acceptance and as-
sertion, our aversion to suspended judgment, are signs that we
tend naturally to cut short the process of testing. We are
satisfied with superficial and immediate short-visioned ap-
plications. If these work out with moderate satisfactoriness,
we are content to suppose that our assumptions have been
confirmed. Even in the case of failure, we are inclined to
put the blame not on the inadequacy and incorrectness of our
data and thoughts, but upon our hard luck and the hostility
of circumstance. We charge the evil consequence not to the
error of our schemes and our incomplete inquiry into con-
ditions (thereby getting material for revising the former
and stimulus for extending the latter) but to untoward
fate. We even plume ourselves upon our firmness in ding-